From Deseret News archives:
Record finish: Hedrick beats 10,000 meter mark in Saturday's competition in Kearns
No, the only real drama was if he had enough gas in his tank to break the world record as he predicted he would. And as each of the 25 laps Hedrick skated passed, the drama built — as did his lead over his competitors.
With one lap to go, Hedrick's coach flashed him a time telling him how fast he needed to skate the final 400 meters in order to set the record, not letting Hedrick know he actually had another two seconds of wiggle room.
"He told me I needed a 29-second lap to break the record," Hedrick said.
That ploy might not have been necessary. Hedrick's time of 12 minutes, 55.11 seconds was 2.81 seconds faster than any human had ever skated the distance and nearly a full minute faster than his closest competitor at the US Long Track Speedskating Championships at the Utah Olympic Oval.
Hedrick's time was impressive in many ways. While many skaters are struggling to find enough energy to cross the finish line after skating's longest race, Hedrick was producing his fastest lap. After a 32.03 split time on lap 19, Hedrick kicked it up a notch and trimmed a little time off each lap until he let everything go with a blistering 28.96 mark over the final 400 meters.
"That's Chad for you," fellow skater Brian Boudreau was overheard saying after the race. "He saves his best for the last every time."
With the world record in the 10,000, Hedrick also broke the world record in the all-around. His combined score of 146.501 was almost three seconds faster than the mark set by American Shani Davis on the same ice almost a year ago.
Hedrick has now given himself a chance to equal the mark set by Eric Heiden with five speedskating gold medals in one Olympic games. By finishing second in the 1,000 with a time of 1:08.23, Hedrick earned an Olympic roster spot for that event, bumping Nick Pearson from the roster.
Though Hedrick is a friend of Pearson's, he's not disappointed about his 1,000 roster spot.
"I'm here to win," Hedrick said. "I'm not here to get second place. I'm not here to skate good and get second."
The world record was a perfect capper to a week-long event filled with a little drama, a lot of emotion and a handful of Olympic roster spots still up for grabs.
Amy Sannes entered the week as a past Olympian, but had not yet qualified for any events. She leaves the week with her name firmly planted in the two shortest sprint events and also won the women's sprint all-around title thanks to her performances.
Jennifer Rodriguez posted the best time of the day in the women's 1,000 at 1:14.42 with Christine Witty and Sannes joining her on the medals podium.
